Stouffville farmers’ market in council’s hands

YorkRegion.com
Feb. 20, 2015
Sandra Bolan

Foot traffic was up last summer, in comparison to 2013, when the Downtown Stouffville Farmers’ Market was located on Park Drive, according to Anna Rose, Whitchurch-Stouffville’s downtown co-ordinator.

In 2014, the Thursday afternoon market moved to the parking lot of 6240 Main St.

The plan for this year, according to Rose, is a “carbon copy of what we did last year. What council decides is a whole other thing.”

During a Feb. 10 meeting held with a number of Main Street business owners, Mayor Justin Altmann questioned why the market was held on Thursdays and said moving it to Saturdays should be considered, according to Rose.

The Sun-Tribune was not invited to the meeting held in the town hall.

The challenge, Rose later told The Sun-Tribune, remains the same as it did when the market first opened in 2009. A number of vendors are already committed to long-established weekend markets.

“But who knows, maybe I could find more vendors,” she said.

This past summer, the market had 11 or 12 regular vendors along with one or two new ones each week who came to try it out or came only once their crop was harvested, she said.

For much of the summer, Willow Springs Winery sold their wine at the market, thanks to changes in regulations set out by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, which governs wineries.

“That was a really nice add-on,” Rose said.

The annual Downtown Stouffville Farmers’ Market report is expected to go before council next month.